Wednesday, 31 May, 2006

Presented by Jeremy Paxman

Water

How can the future of Britain's water supply be secured? As we face our worst drought in a hundred years that's the crucial question a meeting called by the new environment secretary will try to answer tomorrow.

Tonight Newsnight hosts its own Water Summit - is the answer a national water grid? Compulsory metering? Further privatisation of the water industry? Our studio panel will attempt to find an answer.

Iran

The US secretary of state has offered to enter talks with Iran if it suspends moves to develop nuclear weapons.

It would be the first time the US has engaged in direct diplomatic talks with Iran since the hostage crisis of 1979. Could this historic move break the impasse ?

Iraq

The Iraqi prime minister today declared a state of emergency in the southern city of Basra in an attempt to contain increasing violence between shi'ite groups.

The move comes just days after two British soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb. Are the British losing control of the region?

And the White House has promised to reveal the results of an official investigation into the killing of Iraqi civilians, allegedly by American marines, in the town of Haditha.

But is Haditha an isolated case or is American military misconduct more widespread? Philip Roth

From writing about masturbation to devising an alternative history of the American presidency, Philip Roth has built a reputation as the leading fiction writer in the US - and a trenchant observer of its political scene.

Mark Lawson met him in New York to discuss why Roth thinks President Bush is a 'monster' on a par with Iran's President Ahmadinejad and why Hilary Clinton is not the saviour of the Democrats.